your firefox profile cannot be loaded it may be missing or inaccessible

[micky]

What, in my situation, causes:

your firefox profile cannot be loaded, it may be missing or inaccessible


It takes 7 seconds to return the message and if I had the file name
wrong, I think it would take less time, plus I've compared the file name
with its entry in profiles.ini and they are the same, just as they used
to be.


I have profiles from my old computer, my laptop, my new computer, and a
HDD I found on my desk. And I've learned how to edit profiles.ini to
link to all these to FF, and I've learned how to add -no-remote to a
shortcut so that I can start additional profiles while the first one is
still working.

And all this worked, including, on my new computer using the profile of
the laptop, which I used full-time for 4 months before I got the new
computer.

Then when I actually needed something, I got the message at the top.


What could have gone wrong with the profile?

The other still work fine.

I looked in each and they have an array of files and subdirectories.
They vary from one to another. Is any file or sub-dir so essential that
it would generate this message? I've googled, but all the hits are
about basic multi-profile doings, nothing about a profile that doesn't
work when others do.

I'll gladly post a list of all the files and directories if that will
help.

[WaltS48]

The Firefox executable may still be active.

Check your system monitor.

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[micky]

In mozilla.support.firefox, on Tue, 24 Nov 2020 12:45:29 -0500, WaltS48

I don't understand. When I have FF open with one profile, I can still
open it with another proflle at the same time. One is supposed to be
able to do that. So doesn't that mean the FF executable is active the
entire time? And that works. It works with 3 of the other 4
profiles, but not the one I want to use.

OTOH, if I close FF entirely, if say I restart windows, so I know none
of FF is active, and the first profile I try to use is the problem one,
I get the same error message.

>Check your system monitor.

System monitor?

[WaltS48]

Whatever the program is called that shows the list of applications and
files in use with the percentage of CPU usage, the memory used and other
information on your operating system which you failed to identify in
your OP.

It is System Monitor on my Linux operating system.

[Chris Ilias]

On 2020-11-24 11:08 a.m., micky wrote:
> What, in my situation, causes:
>
> your firefox profile cannot be loaded, it may be missing or inaccessible

Could you try the solutions in the following article, and see if any of
them help:
<https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible>

--
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator

[micky]

In mozilla.support.firefox, on Tue, 24 Nov 2020 19:58:32 -0500, Chris

Ilias <nm...@ilias.ca> wrote:

>On 2020-11-24 11:08 a.m., micky wrote:
>> What, in my situation, causes:
>>
>> your firefox profile cannot be loaded, it may be missing or inaccessible
>
>Could you try the solutions in the following article, and see if any of
>them help:
><https://support.mozilla.org/kb/how-run-firefox-when-profile-missing-inaccessible>

This gave 3 reasons it might not be found:

Move the profile folder back to its original location.

It had not been moved.

Restore the profile's original name if you've changed it.

Didn't change it.

Create a new profile using the Profile Manager using the
instructions to start the Profile Manager when Firefox is closed....

I had other profiles that worked. Of course they didn't get me what I
wanted.


So I'd looked closely at the names before, but this time I used a
magnifying glass and finally I noticed that the 41 in fhe file name
below should have been a 4l. As I write this they look different, no
serifs at the bottom of the l, but the letters within Notepad and
Xplorer2 look much more alike, and also between the two programs they
look very much alike,

The bottom is the same and unlike what I'm seeing right now, the l has a
serif at the top, only on the left side, and it looks a lot like the
extra line the 1 has at the top. The lengths are the same and there is
a fixed width font in use, so the spacing is the same.

If they made the lower case l look less like 1, it would look more like
an upper case I.

This problem must have been known since the time of Guttenberg, I've
long wondered why MS or others didn't take steps to solve it. The start
of personal computers was, in the recent words of some politician
(talking about something else), an inflection point, and a good time to
make a litle change. Maybe the start of business computers was too.


Path=D:\Data2\Profiles-temp\g1dabv41.default.THREE
Path=D:\Data2\Profiles-temp\g1dabv4l.default.THREE

Assume a fixed width font and almost matching serifs on the 1 and l.



So thanks for the link. There is a lot of similartiy between "File has
been Moved" and "I can't manage to read the file name.".

I was certain that I'd used this profile on this box at least once, but
I certainly didnt' go back and misspell it after it worked. I must have
misspelled it in the first place, and I must never have used it, despite
what I think.

[Andy Burns]

micky wrote:

> I noticed that the 41 in fhe file name
> below should have been a 4l

copy/paste is your friend :-)

[micky]

In mozilla.support.firefox, on Thu, 26 Nov 2020 08:25:11 +0000, Andy

I'll admit, xporer2 does have an item under Edit, called Copy Names, but
I've never noticed it before and certainly not gotten used to using it.

Even MS File Explorer has Copy Path, but it was hard to find just now.

I'm still living in the 1990's, I guess.